magimix christmas cake

© David Loftus


Ingredients

• 280g pitted prunes
• 200g each raisins, currants, mixed peel, dried cranberries
• 140g glace cherries
• 100g mixed nuts
• 150ml dark rum
• 3 tsp each vanilla and almond essence
• 400g brown sugar
• 250g plain flour
• 1 tsp each ground allspice and nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 230g unsalted butter
• 5 eggs
• 130ml tawny port
• 70ml golden rum
• 40g glacéed cedro lemons, sliced wafer thin
• 1/2 candied orange (or clementine), sliced wafer thin

Icing
• 450g caster sugar
• 60ml golden rum
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla essence


1. Combine dried fruits in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl and add nuts, dark rum, vanilla and almond essence and 60g brown sugar. Cover and soak in the rum overnight then transfer to a saucepan. Add 250ml cold water and heat over high heat until begins to simmer then reduce to low heat and cook 15 minuets or until fruits soften. Allow to cool.

2. Sift flour with allspice, nutmeg, cloves, baking powder and ½ tsp salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. Use an electric mixer to cream the butter and the remaining brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add fruit mixture and stir well to combine, then add reserved flour mixture and combine well.

4. Preheat the oven to 150C. Grease a 28cm-diameter springform cake tin with a little softened butter, then sprinkle a little flour around the sides and bottom and shake out excess flour. Spoon cake mixture into cake tin and bake for 2 hours or until a skewer poked in the middle of the cake withdraws clean from the cake. Remove cake from the oven and prick all over with the skewer. Combine port and rum in a jug and pour over the cake. Allow to stand for 3 hours before removing from the springform cake tin.

5. For the icing, combine sugar, golden rum, cream of tartar, ¼ tsp salt and 180ml cold water in a saucepan and cook over low heat until mixture reaches 118C (soft ball stage) on a sugar thermometer. Meanwhile, beat egg whites in a mixer to soft peaks then gradually add hot syrup and vanilla to egg whites, beating constantly for 10 minutes or until icing cools and is of spreadable consistency.

6. Ice cake immediately with a palette knife and serve with garnish of cedro and clementines on top.

Recipe by Andy Harris
From: jamieoliver.com

fennel-salted pork chops with spicy cabbage

Serves 2

Roasting root veg highlights their natural flavours – the swede's slight bitterness a foil for the sweet carrots. - Jamie

Ingredients

• 1 swede, peeled and cut into wedges
• 4 carrots, peeled, cut into 3cm chunks
• Olive oil, for tossing and drizzling
• 1 bulb garlic, sliced in half, plus one clove garlic, peeled and sliced
• A few sprigs thyme
• 1 small savoy cabbage
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and sliced
• 2 pork rib chops, about 350g each, cut about 2cm thick
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• Vegetable oil, for cooking


Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Toss the swede and carrots in a little olive oil, season with salt and black pepper, and place in a baking tray with the garlic halves and thyme. Cover with foil and put in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove and discard the cabbage's outer leaves and stalk. Shred the leaves and place in a bowl. Have the mustard seeds, sliced garlic and chilli next to the cabbage, as you'll be working quickly later.

When the carrots and swede are cooked through, remove the foil and return to the oven to crisp for 10–15 minutes, turning them now and then to ensure they brown evenly.

Meanwhile, preheat a griddle to hot, and lay your chops on a board. With a pestle and mortar, grind the fennel seeds with 1 tsp salt until no whole seeds remain. Drizzle the chops with olive oil and sprinkle with the fennel salt and plenty of black pepper, rubbing over evenly.

Lay the meat in the pan, making sure it makes good contact with the griddle's ridges. Cook for 10 minutes, turning every two minutes, until cooked through. With a pair of tongs, pick the chops off the griddle and let rest for a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a frying pan to hot and add a splash of vegetable oil. Add the mustard seeds and, when they begin to pop, the sliced garlic and chilli. Sizzle for a few seconds, add the cabbage, season and stir-fry for a minute or so until wilted. Turn off the heat and let the cabbage sit for another minute before serving with the chops and root veg.


Recipe by Pete Begg, Photography by David Loftus
• from Jamie Magazine issue 1
jamieoliver.com

appleberry pie

© David Loftus
Serves 10–12

Ingredients

optional: good-quality vanilla ice cream, cream or custard, to serve

For the pastry:
• 500g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 100g icing sugar
a pinch of sea salt
• 250g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
• 2 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic
• a splash of milk

For the filling:
• 10 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and halved, 3 sliced
• juice and zest of 2 oranges
• 7 heaped tablespoons caster sugar
• 400g huckleberries or blueberries
• 1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
• 1 large egg, preferably freerange or organic, beaten
• a small handful of demerara sugar


You can make your pastry by hand, or simply pulse all the ingredients in a food processor. If making by hand, sieve the flour, icing sugar and salt from a height into a large mixing bowl. Use your fingertips to gently work the cubes of butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Transfer a handful of this mixture to a separate bowl, rub it between your fingers to get larger crumbs, then put aside. Add the eggs and milk to the main mixture and gently work it together until you have a ball of pastry dough. Don't work it too much at this stage – you want to keep it crumbly and short. Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry, then wrap it in clingfilm and pop it into the fridge to rest for 1 hour.


Meanwhile, put the apples into a large pan with the zest and juice of 1 orange, a splash of water and 5 tablespoons of caster sugar. Cover the pan and simmer on a medium heat for 10 minutes, until the apples have softened but still hold their shape. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Scrunch a handful of berries in a bowl with the remaining caster sugar and the zest and juice of your remaining orange. Add the rest of the berries. Toss the cooled apples and their juices in a large bowl with the berries and the flour, then put aside.


Preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Take your ball of pastry out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. Get yourself a pie dish around 28cm in diameter. Flour a clean surface and a rolling pin. Cut off a third of your pastry and put that piece to one side. Roll the rest into a circle just over 0.5cm thick, dusting with flour as you go. Roll the circle of pastry up over your rolling pin, then gently unroll it over the pie dish. Push it into the sides, letting any excess pastry hang over the edge. Tip in the fruit filling and brush all around the edge of the pastry with some of the beaten egg. Roll out the smaller ball of pastry about 0.5cm thick and use your rolling pin to lay it over the top of the pie. Brush it all over with more beaten egg, reserving a little. Sprinkle over the reserved crumble mixture and the demerara sugar.


Fold the scruffy edges of pastry hanging over the sides back over the pie, sealing the edge by twisting or crimping it as you like. Brush these folded edges with your remaining beaten egg. Using a small, sharp knife, cut a cross into the middle of the pie. Place on the bottom of the oven and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until golden and beautiful. Serve with ice cream, cream or custard.


Wine suggestion:
Italian sweet white – a Moscato d'Asti from Piemonte

From: jamieoliver.com

quick sausage meatballs with a tomato and basil sauce, spaghetti and sweet raw peas

© David Loftus
Main course/Serves 4

This is a fantastic recipe that completely celebrates everything I love about peas. Even though they only make an appearance right at the end, it's a star performance. I like to serve a pile of unpodded peas in the middle of the table so that everyone gets to pod some over their own plate. It's also an incredibly fast recipe – you can be sitting down to eat within a minute of the pasta being done. The key to getting it right, though, is to buy really good-quality sausage. - Jamie


Ingredients

• olive oil
• 8 good-quality pork sausages
• 500g spaghetti
sea salt
• 300g fresh peas, in their pods
• a block of Parmesan cheese, to serve
• a few sprigs of fresh marjoram, thyme or rosemary, leave picked

for the tomato sauce
olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• a small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
• 2 x 400g tins of good-quality plum tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• good-quality balsamic vinegar


Heat a large saucepan and add a few glugs of olive oil. Snip the sausages apart, then squeeze and pinch the meat out of the skins so that you get little meatball shapes – don't make them too big or they will take too long to cook. Try to get at least three balls out of each sausage. Don't worry about rolling them into perfect balls and making them look all fancy – rough and rustic is good! Put them into your pan. Keep frying and turning the meatballs until they're golden brown and cooked through.


Meanwhile, put the spaghetti into a large pan of salted boiling water and cook according to the packet instructions until al dente.


To make your tomato sauce, heat a separate pan and pour in some olive oil. Add the garlic and the chopped basil stalks and move them around the pan for a couple of minutes. Put some small basil leaves to one side for later, and sprinkle the rest into the pan. Add the tomatoes and season carefully to taste. Bring to a simmer, break up your tomatoes a bit more with a spoon and add a swig of balsamic vinegar – it's lovely for adding sweetness to the sauce.


Add the herbs to the pan of sausage meatballs, tossing everything in all the lovely flavours. Cook for around 30 seconds. When your spaghetti is cooked, drain it and divide the pasta and meatballs between four bowls. Spoon over the tomato sauce. Sprinkle over the reserved basil leaves and serve with a handful of fresh peas per person in the middle of the table, so that everyone can have a go at podding their own, and a little Parmesan for grating and shaving over the top.


• from Jamie at Home (jamieoliver.com)

creamy asparagus soup with a poached egg on toast

© David Loftus
Starter | Serves 8

A fantastically simple asparagus soup, pureéd till it's silky smooth, is always a winner. Delicious eaten hot (or cold on really hot days with the help of a little lemon juice). The poached egg on toast makes it for me, but of course you don't have to serve the soup with them. I usually poach a couple more eggs than I need in case of breakages in the pan! I've made this for eight, but feel free to halve quantities or freeze soup leftovers. - Jamie


Ingredients

• 800g asparagus, woody ends removed
olive oil
• 2 medium white onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and copped
• 2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
• 2 litres good-quality chicken or vegetable stock, preferably organic
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 small very fresh free-range or organic eggs
• 8 slices of ciabatta bread
• a knob of butter
• extra virgin olive oil


Chop the tips off your asparagus and put these to one side for later. Roughly chop the asparagus stalks. Get a large, deep pan on the heat and add a good lug of olive oil. Gently fry the onions, celery and leeks for around 10 minutes, until soft and sweet, without colouring. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and stock and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender or in a liquidizer. Season the soup bit by bit (this is important) with salt and pepper until just right. Put the soup back on the heat, stir in the asparagus tips, bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes until the tips have softened.


Just before I'm ready to serve the soup, I get a wide casserole-type pan on the heat with 8 to 10cm of boiling water. Using really fresh eggs, I very quickly crack all 10 into the water. Don't worry about poaching so many at the same time. They don't have to look perfect. A couple of minutes and they'll be done, as you want them to be a bit runny. Toast your ciabatta slices. Using a slotted spoon, remove all the poached eggs to a plate and add a knob of butter to them. To serve, divide the soup between eight warmed bowls and place a piece of toast into each. Put a poached egg on top, cut into it to make it runny, season and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.


• from Jamie at Home (jamieoliver.com)

parmesan chicken breasts with crispy posh ham

© David Loftus

Main courses | Serves 2
This is a great way to prepare chicken breasts. The texture of the crisp cooked prosciutto goes brilliantly with the tender chicken. Bashing the chicken out thinly before you start cooking means it cooks much faster than a regular chicken breast.

If you have trouble finding prosciutto then any other kind of thinly-sliced ham such as pancetta, Parma ham or even smoked streaky bacon will work just as well. - Jamie


Ingredients

• 30g Parmesan cheese
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 skinless chicken breasts, preferably free-range or organic
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon
• 6 slices of prosciutto
• olive oil


To prepare your chicken
• Grate your Parmesan
• Pick the thyme leaves off the stalks
• Carefully score the underside of the chicken breasts in a criss-cross fashion with a small knife
• Season with a little pepper (you don't need salt as the prosciutto is quite salty)
• Lay your breasts next to each other and sprinkle over most of the thyme leaves
• Grate a little lemon zest over them, then sprinkle with the Parmesan
• Lay 3 prosciutto slices on each chicken breast, overlapping them slightly
• Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining thyme leaves
• Put a square of clingfilm over each breast and give them a few really good bashes with the bottom of a pan until they're about 1cm thick

To cook your chicken
• Put a frying pan over a medium heat
• Remove the clingfilm and carefully transfer the chicken breasts, prosciutto side down, into the pan
• Drizzle over some olive oil
• Cook for 3 minutes on each side, turning halfway through, giving the ham side an extra 30 seconds to crisp up

To serve your chicken
• Either serve the chicken breasts whole or cut them into thick slices and pile them on a plate
• Serve with some lemon wedges for squeezing over, and a good drizzle of olive oil
• Lovely with mash and green veg or a crunchy salad!


• from Jamie's Ministry of Food
jamieoliver.com

reuben-ish sandwich

© David Loftus

Snacks and sides | Serves 1
The origin of the Reuben sandwich is hotly disputed, but many New Yorkers say it began in Reuben's Deli on East 58th Street. A classic Reuben sandwich should have Thousand Island dressing, but this is my version. Try it with nice smoked ham if you can't find pastrami. - Jamie


Ingredients

• 3 big 1cm slices of rye bread
• mayonnaise
• 4 heaped tablespoons sauerkraut
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
• 4–5 slices of pastrami
a few gherkins, sliced
• 100g Swiss cheese
• a handful of watercress leaves, to serve


Grill the slices of bread on a griddle pan until lightly toasted on both sides then spread one side of each with mayonnaise. Put some of the sauerkraut and some of the chilli on 2 of the slices, and top with a couple of slices of pastrami. Top with the remaining sauerkraut and chilli and the sliced gherkins, then grate the Swiss cheese over the top.


Preheat a hot grill. Place the slices with toppings under the grill until the cheese is melted and dribbling.


Stack the sandwich together, adding a few watercress leaves and finishing with the final slice of toast. Press down lightly and use wooden skewers to hold together. Tuck in!


From: jamieoliver.com